A corona charger is used to generate an electrostatic charge on a surface, for example, a sheet of paper, a photoconductor or a transport web. A corona charger typically includes one or more tightly strung corona wires. The two ends of each wire are firmly attached to the charger housing, for example, by copper lugs, or by manually twisted loops which are connected to the charger housing. Applying high voltage to these corona wires creates the requisite charge.
The corona wires are usually mounted one by one. Mounting and adjusting the tension of each wire independently of other wires is time consuming and relatively expensive. In the mounting process the wire is touched multiple times by tools or by the operator's hand. The mounting process includes unpacking the wire, mounting one and of each wire into the corona charger, attaching a tensioning spring to the other end of each wire, and mounting this other end of each wire and the tensioning spring into the corona charger housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,165 discloses an automatic wiring machine of a corona charge device. This machine is very complex and very bulky.